Corporate broking creeps toward the continent
Recruiters say demand is continuing apace for junior corporate brokers to work in London. There are also signs that this very British practice may be spreading to continental Europe.
"In the past few months, some of the larger banks have stepped up their recruitment of analysts and associates for corporate broking teams," says James Heath, managing director of search firm Greenwich Partners. "Many of the larger banks have been winning new corporate clients from their competitors, and need junior staff who can undertake the market and sector analysis that backs up senior team members."
The UK corporate broking sector saw a rush of hiring in 2005, when Citigroup alone added 11 people to its corporate broking team, many of them from Hoare Govett, the broking arm of ABN Amro.
Heath declined to say exactly which banks are recruiting corporate brokers right now, but it's possible to hazard a guess. Lehman Brothers and Kaupthing have both hired new heads of corporate broking in 2006, and are likely to build at a junior level. Morgan Stanley may need additional junior talent after winning a rash of new mandates, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is advertising for an associate to join its London corporate broking team.
Corporate broking opportunities in Germany? Perhaps not.
Meanwhile, German corporate financiers and equities salespeople who fancy trying their hand at corporate broking may now be in with a chance. The Financial Times today reports that Credit Suisse is setting up a new corporate broking team in the country, headed by Stefan Hüttermann, its former co-head of equity sales.
Corporate broking is usually seen as a peculiarly English phenomenon, although banks like WestLB already appear to offer a German equivalent in the form of 'designated sponsorships.'
Magdelana Bohn, a consultant at Frankfurt-based search firm MB Consulting, says she's never come across a corporate broking role in Germany. Frankfurt banks are more interested in hiring institutional salespeople and equity derivative traders, says Bohn.
